[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 133 (Tuesday, October 5, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H9308-H9309]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

  (Mr. HAYWORTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the 
remarks of my colleague on the left from

[[Page H9309]]

 the State of Texas. And indeed he is making news today. Because, 
apparently, he is endorsing the candidacy of his governor, Governor 
Bush. And we certainly appreciate that act of bipartisanship. But in 
all sincerity and in all seriousness, Mr. Speaker, it is important that 
we do this as we defend patients' rights.
  The key on this House floor and in the hospitals and clinics and 
homes of America is this: We must make sure that we have a true 
Patients' Bill of Rights instead of a lawyer's right to bill. And as we 
see this morning in one of our national publications, Mr. Speaker, 
sadly this is true.
  I quote now, ``Yet trial lawyer money talks loudest of all now to 
many Democrats.'' And indeed it is increasingly clear the Democrat 
Party, with no ideological link to the private economy, is now reduced 
to redistributing income through litigation.
  We do not want a lawyer's right to bill. We want a patients' bill of 
rights.

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